Shanghai's food and drug authorities said on Wednesday that the
city had established a fast testing system for food safety.
"The system can tell the safety of most food products within 30
minutes," said Li Jie, deputy director of the Shanghai Food and
Drug Supervision Institute.
All the districts and counties in the city have been equipped
with food safety testing vehicles and personnel, said Li.
Food safety has become one of the major concerns of Chinese
citizens as a number of food contamination accidents have been
exposed across the country in recent months.
Last November, the country's food safety watchdog found that
seven companies that were producing salted red-yolk eggs
contaminated with dangerous red Sudan dyes, which are used legally
in the leather and fabric industries, but are banned for food
use.
Also last year, carcinogenic residue was detected in turbot sold
on markets in Beijing and Shanghai.
China's quality control watchdog announced on Tuesday two
Chinese companies exported melamine-contaminated wheat gluten and
rice protein.
An official from the Legislative Affairs Office of the State
Council said his department would finish drafting the amendments to
the Food Safety Law soon.
(Xinhua News Agency May 10, 2007)